The Monday After: Getting Through What You’re Going Through {Sheryll}

You know that Sunday feeling, right?

We leave the church building inspired and filled with Truth and encouragement on Sundays … and somewhere along the course of the week, pieces of the message tend to fade and we often lose that Sunday feeling.

The Monday After {the Sunday Sermon} carries the Sunday message into Monday mornings by sharing how what we’ve heard on Sunday morning is making a difference in our Mondays, our weeks, our lives. Because of your generosity to Accelerate, we are able to share these stories! Thank you!

The Monday After Sunday, January 19, 2014 : Getting Through What You’re Going Through {click HERE to listen!}

By Sheryll Belonga

What’s your Goliath? Sounds like a strange question unless you know the story. If you’ve never read about the epic battle of David versus Goliath or weren’t at the service yesterday,let me put it this way: what is the mountain you have approached that you feel like you can’t climb?

At some point in our life we encounter a task or situation so daunting that we can’t see our way past it. When I was sitting in service the “Goliath” type challenge that came to my mind was when I struggled after having our third son. Although the pregnancy was planned and prayed for, when he was born reality set in. I began to doubt my ability to handle to position I had desired. I wondered if I was truly capable of such a task. I would love to say that as a Christian I prayed and accepted the challenge with all my faith in God, but that wasn’t the case.

With each passing day I grew more and more stressed. I passed it off as if it wasn’t real, but it never went away. I didn’t even share my struggles with my husband because I thought I should be able to deal with it. Well the day came when I couldn’t push it aside any longer. At that time our oldest was 3.5, our middle son was almost 2 and the baby was 2-3 months. I don’t remember what led me to my breaking point; I just remember breaking. I was at home and thought that I needed my boys out of the house. I simply wanted them to go away so I could have peace. I called my mother-in-law and she agreed to keep them for a bit. While driving to her house I began feeling overwhelming emotions and I began to cry. I called my best friend, a physician, and described how I was feeling. All I could say was that I didn’t feel right and I felt crazy. I was emotionally, physically and spiritually depleted. We talked a little more and she said that I should go to see my physician because I was depressed. So I called and made the appointment.

I dropped the boys off at my mother-in-law’s and felt a huge sigh of relief. I grabbed a bite to eat and went back home. I don’t remember much about the rest of that day except for the peace I felt with them gone. When I saw my physician she prescribed anti-depressants with the warning that things may feel worse before they got better. At least until the medicine was in my system. “Wow that is encouraging”, I’d thought. After talking to my husband and praying about it we decided not to take the medicine because we both had concerns about it. Instead we agreed to work through this together.

Let me pause and say that taking medications or not taking them for depression is a personal decision. It is a decision that should be made after consulting physician and talking to your spouse or your support system. It is something to pray about and see where God leads you.

So, over the next few months God used my husband to be my strength. He helped me through the toughest thing I had faced so far in my life and I thank God for blessing me with my rock to take down my Goliath.

What is your Goliath? Do you have the strength to face it own your own? I did not have the wisdom or the strength to stand on my own and maybe you don’t either. Is there someone that you can call upon who can go to God on your behalf? Pray and ask God for someone who can help lead you to Him, the one who can bring a great victory.

Sheryll Belonga is wife to Jurrell and homeschooling mom to their three great boys. Her hearts desire is to glorify God in all she says and does in spite of life’s daily happenings.